Stemar
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Leaving aside the utility or otherwise - other than for Boris & cronies, how many think you'd build a ship like that for £200M? Or is it going to end up being £500M? More?
A 'national flag ship' planned to replace Royal Yacht
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JumbleDuck
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The original Queen Mary seems to be up for grabs ...
Kukri
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The Royal Yacht “Victoria and Albert III” was a fiasco. Victoria had badgered Parliament for a bigger and better Royal Yacht because the Kaiser and the Tsar had bigger ones than her old paddle steamer. (Actually, make that “paddle steamers”, plural; she had three... see below... the “V&A”, the “Osborne” and the “Alberta”...)
The thing was late, over budget and top heavy because of things added to please the old Queen, such as a hand spike capstan on the foredeck, added not because a steam ship needed such a thing, but because the Queen “liked to see the sailors working”. When the building dock was flooded the ship fell over. The Director of Naval Construction resigned.
Victoria died before she could use her new toy, which cost almost as much as a battleship of the day. Indeed, the “V&AIII” was so useless that the old battleship “Renown” was converted into a Royal Yacht in 1905.
This thing is going to be designed by a naval architect no doubt but one reporting to a committee of politicians. Given that our Armed Forces cannot bring projects in on time and on budget, what is the prospect of this thing being on time and on budget?
(I suppose the modern equivalent of a battleship is an aircraft carrier... so we are probably looking at a couple of billion pounds...)
The Victoria and Albert III
The “Osborne”
The “Alberta”
And the “Victoria and Albert II”, 1855
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dom
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dom
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Surely any one of those would do nicely; are any still around?
Seriously
Because, I'll be well pissed off if Bojo, Gove, a few Royal folk, + Mates are figuring out how to wallpaper this little baby!
Kukri
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I don’t think they are, but you never know what the RN has, hidden away. King George IV’s Royal Yacht, the “Royal George”, built in 1817, was last used in 1842 but survived, unused, but in commission, until 1902, when she was reduced to an accommodation hulk. The picture was taken in 1897:
dom
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And as King Bojo ages (that's the way it's going, right?), we'll save on his Viagra bill as he looks up at those masts.
Perfect, Buy it!
Frogmogman
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View attachment 116651
I wonder if Nautor could sue who ever came up with that one for taking the mickey out of Swans...
I wonder if Nautor could sue who ever came up with that one for taking the mickey out of Swans...
Kukri
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Eureka!
I have been looking in the wrong place for the ideal superyacht for the Johnsons.
What we need is something with a Churchill connection and with really outrageous wallpaper.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Winston Churchill’s “favourite toy” (his own words), the Admiralty Yacht “Enchantress”, built by Harland and Wolff (and they will have the drawings) in 1903.
I have been looking in the wrong place for the ideal superyacht for the Johnsons.
What we need is something with a Churchill connection and with really outrageous wallpaper.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Winston Churchill’s “favourite toy” (his own words), the Admiralty Yacht “Enchantress”, built by Harland and Wolff (and they will have the drawings) in 1903.
penfold
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Displaying questionable taste; white shoes with a pea coat? That lounge is a bit 'busy'. Is that an electric or a gas fire at the back? Looks lethal either way.
dom
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lustyd
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ROB? She's off trying to start a war at the moment, from what I can tell.
Resolution
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Lovely flock wallpaper. But maybe Mrs Bojo would prefer something a little glossier?
Edit: dammit. Been Dommed
Edit: dammit. Been Dommed
Kukri
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Brass buttons on a reefer?
White shoes?
The fellow is obviously a cad. He would not be allowed into the Squadron, dressed as badly as that - but he does provide a standard for Johnson to aim at.
White shoes?
The fellow is obviously a cad. He would not be allowed into the Squadron, dressed as badly as that - but he does provide a standard for Johnson to aim at.
Kukri
Well-known member
This is better. Someone has had a word with him.
Kukri
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Agree about the shoes and the paid hand buttons. I think it might be a newspaper rack. The design will be in the Harland and Wolff pattern books.
Greemble
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Her Majesty isn't getting a yacht, mega or otherwise, so no worry about that.
As pointed out before on this thread, this is a "National Yacht", not a Royal Yacht.
Kukri
Well-known member
A friend comments:
“Seriously though, if we are going down this route there are plenty of proven ro-ro hull forms, the car decks could provide the exhibition/ conference spaces and the accommodation designed for state rooms etc. Give me a free hand and it would come in under £200 million and within 2 years. Hull built in Spain, (they are good at that) fitted out in the U.K. Wartsilas and Holebys downstairs. Might need telescopic masts (a la MSC) to get under Dartford Bridge etc .”
If, indeed, we want a ship to promote British exports, costing less than £200M, this, not any sort of “yacht”, is the way to go.
“Seriously though, if we are going down this route there are plenty of proven ro-ro hull forms, the car decks could provide the exhibition/ conference spaces and the accommodation designed for state rooms etc. Give me a free hand and it would come in under £200 million and within 2 years. Hull built in Spain, (they are good at that) fitted out in the U.K. Wartsilas and Holebys downstairs. Might need telescopic masts (a la MSC) to get under Dartford Bridge etc .”
If, indeed, we want a ship to promote British exports, costing less than £200M, this, not any sort of “yacht”, is the way to go.
Capt Popeye
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Might mention, that its certainly not the way the British have influenced our future, here or abroad, so both Swank or a Floating demo Ship are one would say are completely out of the equation being considered
Also might venture to suggest that the Term Yacht used in these considerations certainly does not meand a Sailng Boat of any kind, guess the term Yacht is used to denote a Private Floating Boat
sail sail
Active member
Another eye-catching project from our esteemed Prime Minister.
View attachment 116414
Plans for new national flagship to promote 'best of British'
Does anyone else think the 'artists impression' is somehow both slightly strange and rather run-of-the-mill?
I was also curious as to how much of a new, one-off design, UK-built ship you'd really get for £200 million (especially given it apparently cost £200,000 just to decorate a flat!). Does anyone know how plausible that £200m is, or what sort of a vessel you'd get for that?
Note also the sub-editor at play in the following headline.
Boris Johnson plans to sink £200m into new ship of state
No thanks.
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